A plain wagon can become a festive float with a little creativity and a handful of supplies.
Building a float using a child's wagon is a fun way to participate in a neighbor, school or city holiday celebration. Use some of the standard float supplies like chicken wire, tissue paper squares, vinyl fringe and balloons to transform your child's plastic or metal wagon into a colorful float for the 4th of July, Mardi Gras, Halloween, Christmas, homecoming or any other holiday when your child would like to be involved in the merriment.
Queen for a Day
Disguise your child's wagon as a frilly throne for celebrating a little girls' birthday, local high school homecoming or any other time your little girl wants to feel like a princess in a parade. Use plenty of color such as school colors for a homecoming parade; Mardi Gras colors of purple, gold and green for this February celebration; patriotic colors for a July 4th parade; and so forth. Make lots of crepe paper and tissue paper flowers to attach all around the outside of the wagon after attaching a strip of vinyl fringe along the base to cover the wheels. Make an arch of four sturdy wires about 4 feet in length, covered in streamers, balloons or more flowers to attach over the center of the wagon where your little girl will sit. This will then serve as the carriage, like the rounded part of Cinderella's carriage.
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Make July 4th wagon floats that'll make a dynamite impression without needing actual dynamite. Cover the wagon as described earlier, positioning vinyl fringe around the bottom and using tissue squares and crepe paper streamers, make plenty of flowers to cover the outside of the wagon itself in a combination of red, white and blue. Use miniature flags, attached all the way around the wagon, to give the float more flair. Cover paper towel tubes and round oatmeal containers with red, white and blue wrapping paper or construction paper, make a cone of paper to go on one end of the tube and insert a stick in the other end to make various sizes of pretend bottle rockets. And use plenty of balloons and construction paper stars outlined in glitter to add the American spirit to your wagon float. A child can ride in the float, holding a battery-operated CD player that plays patriotic music such as Sousa marches and Aaron Copeland music.
Be a TV Star!
Turn your child into a TV star by turning his float into a large TV. Using a good sized box, cut large squares in the two big sizes of the box and turn it opening side down in a wagon decorated with the standard base supplies of vinyl fringe and tissue paper squares. Paint mock TV controls--power button, volume knocks and a speaker grill--on the two big sides of the box under or down the sides of the box. Dress your child in whatever TV character he or she wants to be--Lucille Ball, Underdog, Pebbles Flintstone, Dora the Explorer, Sponge Bob Squarepants or any other favorite character--and sit him or her down in the middle of the box.
The Red Baron Flies Again
Involve your dog in a pet parade by turning your float into Snoopy's Red Baron doghouse with the aid of a big cardboard box, plenty of red and black paint and red tissue paper and vinyl fringe. Fill the wagon around Red Baron dog house with miniature pumpkins or wadded up orange paper to make the Great Pumpkin's pumpkin patch. Your child can sit alongside your dog and carry a blue blanket to look like Linus sitting by Snoopy.
